ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Murray Gell-Mann - Physicist
Murray Gell-Mann brings visibility to a crucial aspect of our existence that we can't actually see: elemental particles. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics for introducing quarks, one of two fundamental ingredients for all matter in the universe.

Why you should listen

He's been called "the man with five brains" -- and Murray Gell-Mann has the resume to prove it. In addition to being a Nobel laureate, he is an accomplished physicist who's earned numerous awards, medals and honorary degrees for his work with subatomic particles, including the groundbreaking theory that the nucleus of an atom comprises 100 or so fundamental building blocks called quarks.

Gell-Mann's influence extends well beyond his field: He's a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Council on Foreign Relations. He also serves on the board of the Wildlife Conservation Society and is a director of Encyclopedia Britannica. Gell-Mann, a professor emeritus of Caltech, now heads the evolution of human languages program at the Santa Fe Institute, which he cofounded in 1984.

A prolific writer -- he's penned scores of academic papers and several books, including The Quark and the Jaguar -- Gell-Mann is also the subject of the popular science biography Strange Beauty: Murray Gell-Mann and the Revolution in 20th-Century Physics.

More profile about the speaker
Murray Gell-Mann | Speaker | TED.com
TED2007

Murray Gell-Mann: The ancestor of language

Мури Гел-Ман за предокот на јазикот.

Filmed:
944,446 views

По говорот на TED2007 за елеганцијата во физиката, воодушевувачкиот Мури Гел-Манн, ни дава краток преглед на уште еден негов страствен интерес: наоѓањето на заеднички предци кај нашите модерни јазици.
- Physicist
Murray Gell-Mann brings visibility to a crucial aspect of our existence that we can't actually see: elemental particles. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics for introducing quarks, one of two fundamental ingredients for all matter in the universe. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:13
Well, I'm involved in other things, besides physics.
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Вклучен сум и во други работи освен физика.
00:17
In fact, mostly now in other things.
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Всушност, сега и повеќе во други работи.
00:19
One thing is distant relationships among human languages.
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Една од нив е далечната врска меѓу човечките јазици.
00:24
And the professional, historical linguists in the U.S.
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Професионалните, историски лингвисти во САД
00:28
and in Western Europe mostly try to stay away
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и во Западна Европа најчесто се трудат да останат подалеку
00:31
from any long-distance relationships, big groupings,
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од било какви врски на далечина; големи групирања,
00:35
groupings that go back a long time,
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групирања кои постојат долго време,
00:38
longer than the familiar families.
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подолго од препознатливите фамилии.
00:41
They don't like that. They think it's crank. I don't think it's crank.
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Тие не го сакаат тоа; мислат дека тоа е кочење. Јас не сметам дека тоа е така.
00:45
And there are some brilliant linguists, mostly Russians,
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И има некои брилијантни лингвисти, најчесто Руси,
00:48
who are working on that, at Santa Fe Institute and in Moscow,
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кои работат на тоа во институтот Санта Фе и во Москва,
00:52
and I would love to see where that leads.
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и би сакал да видам каде тоа води.
00:56
Does it really lead to a single ancestor
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Дали навистина води кон еден предок
00:59
some 20, 25,000 years ago?
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пред некои 20, 25,000 години?
01:02
And what if we go back beyond that single ancestor,
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И што ако одиме назад кон тој единствен предок,
01:05
when there was presumably a competition among many languages?
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кога се претпоставува дека постоело соперништво помеѓу многу јазици?
01:09
How far back does that go? How far back does modern language go?
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Колку одамна се случувало тоа ? Колку одамна започнал модерниот јазик ?
01:13
How many tens of thousands of years does it go back?
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Колку десетици илјади години да гледаме наназад ?
01:16
Chris Anderson: Do you have a hunch or a hope for what the answer to that is?
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Крис Андерсон: Дали имате претпоставка или надеж за тоа кој е одговорот?
01:19
Murray Gell-Mann: Well, I would guess that modern language must be older
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Мури Гел-Ман: Па, претпостаувам дека модерниот јазик мора да е постар
01:22
than the cave paintings and cave engravings and cave sculptures
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од пештерските цртежи, резби и скулптури
01:26
and dance steps in the soft clay in the caves in Western Europe,
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и чекорите од танцовите во меката глина во пештерите во Западна Европа
01:31
in the Aurignacian Period some 35,000 years ago, or earlier.
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од Ауригнацијанскиот период од пред некои 35,000 години или порано.
01:37
I can't believe they did all those things and didn't also have a modern language.
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Не верувам дека ги правеле сите тие работи а исто така немале модерен јазик.
01:40
So, I would guess that the actual origin goes back at least that far and maybe further.
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Така да, претпоставувам дека вистинските корени одат барем до таму а можеби и подалеку.
01:45
But that doesn't mean that all, or many, or most
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Но тоа не значи дека сите, или многу, или повеќето
01:48
of today's attested languages couldn't descend perhaps
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од денешните присутни јазици не можеле да израснат можеби
01:52
from one that's much younger than that, like say 20,000 years,
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од еден кој е многу помлад од тоа, да речеме некои 20,000 години,
01:56
or something of that kind. It's what we call a bottleneck.
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или нешто од тој тип. Тоа е она што го нарекуваме тесно грло.
02:00
CA: Well, Philip Anderson may have been right.
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КА: па Филип Андерсон можеби беше во право.
02:01
You may just know more about everything than anyone.
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Вие можеби знаете повеќе за се од сите нас.
02:04
So, it's been an honor. Thank you Murray Gell-Mann.
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Ми беше чест. Ви благодарам Мури Гел-Ман.
02:06
(Applause)
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(Аплауз)
Translated by Marko Marcevski
Reviewed by Zvezdana Moneva

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Murray Gell-Mann - Physicist
Murray Gell-Mann brings visibility to a crucial aspect of our existence that we can't actually see: elemental particles. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics for introducing quarks, one of two fundamental ingredients for all matter in the universe.

Why you should listen

He's been called "the man with five brains" -- and Murray Gell-Mann has the resume to prove it. In addition to being a Nobel laureate, he is an accomplished physicist who's earned numerous awards, medals and honorary degrees for his work with subatomic particles, including the groundbreaking theory that the nucleus of an atom comprises 100 or so fundamental building blocks called quarks.

Gell-Mann's influence extends well beyond his field: He's a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Council on Foreign Relations. He also serves on the board of the Wildlife Conservation Society and is a director of Encyclopedia Britannica. Gell-Mann, a professor emeritus of Caltech, now heads the evolution of human languages program at the Santa Fe Institute, which he cofounded in 1984.

A prolific writer -- he's penned scores of academic papers and several books, including The Quark and the Jaguar -- Gell-Mann is also the subject of the popular science biography Strange Beauty: Murray Gell-Mann and the Revolution in 20th-Century Physics.

More profile about the speaker
Murray Gell-Mann | Speaker | TED.com